Twice-Told Tales

is sentenced to death. But instead of losing his life, he is rewarded with the “most loveable among women” – the ideal wife, who is both beautiful and faithful. At the end of the tale, his power and freedom are restored. But this transformation is accomplished through the knight’s submission. At the beginning of the tale, the knight is mortally ignorant of what women want. Rape not only shocks that interest, but represents a tyrannical assault on one of modern civilization's most cherished…

“At any rate as they appeared to me;/Tell who they were, their status and profession,/What they looked like, what kind of clothes they dressed in” (Chaucer 2). In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, nothing speaks louder or stronger than clothing. Right from the start, Chaucer uses physical appearance and clothing to characterize social hierarchy. During the 14th century, appearance and clothing categorized people into different social classes and the type of clothing someone wore…

The Squire: Beyond The Appearance “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” (Aristotle) Although The Canterbury Tales is not the distinct type of art that Aristotle was referring to, his words still apply to the story, particularly when it comes to the Squire. (Chaucer, 199) Chaucer describes the Squire as “embroidered like a meadow bright, and full of freshest flowers, red and white” also pointing out that his hair had “locks as curly…

Chaucer and The Church In Geoggrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, 29 people are on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to worship the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket. One of these pilgrims is a Wife of Bath. She has a unique story; she has wedded five different men. During this time, (The Medieval Times) The Church was one of the most powerful institutions in Europe. The Church had an immense influence on people and governments all across Europe. In the Medieval times, The Church looked…

Living in a city with constant surveillance would drive anyone to paranoia. This is exactly what happens in Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. In this novel about a handmaid named Offred, the multiple strategically placed methods of surveillance drive her to moments of senselessness and cause her to lose sight of control, individuality, and independence. Gilead has several methods of surveillance set up throughout their community. First, they have the ominous Eyes. These are people…

Fairy Tales are an important means used to teach life’s basic truths to children. These stories contain deep moral beliefs that sculpt basic understanding of right and wrong for society. Throughout time they have been adapted to a more child friendly form, even so that the film industry now bases child-oriented movies on classic fairy tales. Fairy tales, such as Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”, appeal to a sense of romance, adventure, and the fight between good and evil. Society…

The Martian: grace under pressure. In the book the Martian, we follow the journey of a stranded astronaut in mars after a windstorm, his struggle for survival and subsequently rescue. We are privy to his thought process and problem solving abilities through a series of log entries. We learn how he overcomes trial after trial until help arrives. He manages to do this as a result of grit, by fostering a growth mindset which allows him to maintain his optimistic outlook, despite the fact that he…

William Goldman’s abridgment The Princess Bride is a fairy tale. Generally the number three or seven occur in fairy tales (Ashliman). Ofttimes, fairy tales have a “happily ever after” ending. Fairy tales usually begin the story with “Once upon a time…”, and take place in a far away setting and time. Magic will appear a number of times in fairy tales. Magic will occur in fairies, witches, or talking animals. Fairy tales are written to show children that even with the toughest struggles in life,…

To what extent does Atwood portray women as being responsible for their own oppression in the Handmaid’s Tale? Explore this with reference to use of language and structure. Atwood presents the women in Gilead as being responsible for their own oppression. At the time of the novel’s creation, the conservative governments lead by Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher were threatening to return to a patriarchal society with the nuclear family at its core. Atwood wanted to make it clear that women…

As a child, the beloved Disney versions of fairy tales instilled the notion of the stories having a perfect ending in our minds. Hence, whenever the phrase “happily ever after” is cited, we would immediately associate it to fairy tales. However, as we mature, we realize this jejune perception is not entirely authentic. The level of complexity becomes increasingly apparent as we delve deeper into the origins; we discover the profound discrepancy between the adaptations and the antecedent…